Over Memorial Day weekend into the next week, I had the pleasure to drive my '06 E55 from NC to San Clemente, California. Stops on the way were Atlanta GA, Shreveport LA, Pecos TX, and Tucson AZ. 2,652 miles door to door.

This was my first drive all the way to California from NC. (I drove a Navigator from NC to Wyoming back in 2013.) The E55 was a great highway ride. I pampered the car because I didn't want to risk anything going wrong out in the middle of nowhere. Also, because I have Strutmasters instead of Airmatic, my tail end was a little low from all the luggage we were hauling.

Even though I never put the petal down hard, there was plenty of triple-digit cruising. Out on the open highways, it was very rare for anyone to pass me, but many cars hung back and kept up, using me as their "front door" to avoid their own performance awards.

My radar detector saved me once or twice, but the speed limits out west were 80 mph in west Texas and 75 everywhere else. It was strange to bug along at 95 mph and not really worry about a costly ticket.

Every state has signs that say "Slower traffic keep right", and everyone ignores those signs. The Texas signs say "Left Lane For Passing Only", which is much more direct, and folks seem to obey.

To my regret, I never saw any other AMGs, nor M class cars, nor Porsches, nor any other exotics out on the open highways. Camaros were very common out west and most likely to play keep up. Even a Cadillac Escalade caught back up after I burned away at 120 mph. A white Corvette in Alabama played leap frog with me, letting me get way ahead and then catching me with his exhaust blaring. They all felt bold when I was running ahead of them to catch any LEO's attention.

The return trip is the end of the month.

When I got to San Clemente, the first thing I noticed on my street was a fake AMG.

Here are some pictures of my real AMG:

 

80 mph speed limit👍👍👍

 

Very nice . . .

 

Real nice. Hope you had fun...

 

Roughly how many times did you have to fill up your tank and what kinda mpg were you getting on average?

 

Between 19 and 20 mpg on average. That's because I was being a little more cautious than normal. Probably didn't engage the supercharger even once.

On a regular monthly trip from Raleigh to Altanta I get 17.9 mpg with an average speed of 78 mph.

 

Is your car bone stock? Or do you have a list of mods you've done?

 

I never washed the car during the trip (except the windshield at every fill-up). Flint Grey Metallic looks great even dusty!

How can you tell a happy AMG? By the bugs in its teeth.

Here's what two thousand six hundred miles of bugs look like:

 

The only mod was replacing Airmatic suspension with Strutmasters, and changing out the head unit and amp. And I had the calipers painted red. No engine or exhaust or cooling or tuning mods so far as I know.

Seeing the trunk sag under the weight of a ton of luggage is the only time I've wished to go back to self-leveling air suspension. Still, I was glad not to worry about waking up in Pecos Texas with a slammed car.

 

Just wondering what made you go with Strutmasters? Were your bags starting to leak?

 

The car would not raise and lower at consistent levels on all corners. This might have just been a ride height sensor issue, but the air suspension on the Navigator I had before failed at a bad time, so I'm snake bit about air suspension. I learned the hard way that once one piece fails you end up on an expensive merry-go-round with no reliability you can drive your car when you wake up. One leak and you're toast.

Strutmasters is an hour from my house, and they needed an E55 R&D car to make their kit. I let them borrow my car for two weeks in exchange for a new steel suspension.

No more worries. There was no change in ride quality, except for the lower back end you can see in the pics caused by a fully loaded trunk.

 

Safe travels on your return...nice looking car except for the bugs . Backgrounds in the other pics are awesome, good eye.

 

How many miles on that bad boy? Nice trip for you and good luck, though I could not do it. After 3-4 hours you would have to pry me out of the seat with my body joints all locked up. Plane travel is real fun as well LOL

 

Glad to see you enjoyed your travel through Texas! It's a different state of mind here. One can travel from tall pines forests in the east, through the Hill Country, then out to the wide-open western desert with mountains.

 

The Pulse button on the dynamic contouring seats gives you a nice massage, making the long trips more bearable.

The car now has 169k miles. I bought it nineteen months ago with 137k miles.

 

I'm kind of surprised by that. On a recent trip from the Bay Area to Sacramento I saw a CLS55, W212 E63, W210 E55 and 2 newer C63s. That's not exactly a long drive either. Also saw one Lamborghini and a Ferrari as well.

 

I see lots of nice cars when driving around in the city too, but out in the middle of the country it's much less common. I just drove from LA to Phoenix and back - once I got out of the metro areas I don't think I saw any higher end cars really.

 

Fantastic. I don't think there are many other cars any better for crossing time zones. I've done 3 2400 mile trips and look forward to the next one and when a buddy of mine bought his e55, he flew to Miami and drove it home to Lynden, way up in the nw corner of Washington; so about as far as you can drive and stay in the US.. These are great cars but they really shine when you point em at the horizon and Go....

 

Blade,

These are the best stories I read here. Road trips in our E's. Thank you.

I have done a number of N/S Cali trips but would love to do what you did.

I have caught your bug....Hope Mills, NC on the horizon...

 

So far this year our '06 E55 AMG Wagon has done Austin TX to Boulder CO (1,000 mi) then Boulder-LA-Tucson-Santa Fe-Boulder (2,600 mi), Boulder-Omaha-Boulder (800 mi) then pre-ran the route of the 2017 Colorado Grand (1,600 mi). About 6,000 mi total, cruised 5-10 mph above, never went over 120, no tickets, 22-24 mpg. Expect to add at least 4,000 mi before year-end.

 

That's great mileage. How many miles on your wagon? Ever have any problems on the road?

 

Ninety thousand now. No problems while traveling. Only mod is Arnott rear bags.

 

Great story, Blade! I'm about 4 miles away from San Clemente. I was just there having coffee on Friday morning. You picked the worst time to come to town, due to the gray "June Gloom" fog bank near the water. Sunshine every single day would just get boring What a great trip! I am itching to go on a long road trip in the wagon.

I'm jealous of Frank's trips as well but I have no idea you manage to get 22-24 mpg!? Seriously? I can barely squeak 20 out of mine, but I haven't been on a super long trip yet. We are heading to the in-laws in Utah in a few weeks and if I can get 22-24, I will be off the charts ecstatic! Looking forward to stretching the legs of the E55...

 

There was sunshine the day we arrived (June 1st) and a beautiful sunset watched from the bar at the pier, but since then the cloud cover has been too thick to bake off. We have some plans to drive to the big inland San Diego safari park and up to the Getty Museum in LA. Those places should be sunny (and hot).

We didn't know about the June gloom.

 

Most people don't know about it. They just think SoCal is sunny all year. It mostly is and some years are better for June Gloom than others. Anywhere inland and it will be beautiful. I was 20 minutes inland yesterday and it was hot! There was a 20 degree difference between there and my house. Getty may be a little gray but the Safari Park will be outstanding! You'll really enjoy that. If you're going to San Diego, don't forget Balboa Park and the zoo. Amazing place to spend the day... Enjoy